Lonqx 



h/v 



V 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 908 614 



1 




Hollinger Corp. 
P H8.5 




The George Washington University. 



COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS. 



By President Charles Willis Needham. 

June 8, 1910. 

Upon previous occasions I have spoken of the needs of the 
District of Columbia for higher education, and have outlined the 
organization, plans, and policies of The George Washington 
University with a view of showing its ability, if properly sup- 
ported, to supply these needs. Todaj^, I desire to speak of the 
services which a strong, well-organized university, wherever lo- 
cated, renders to the state, and to impress upon you, if I may, 
the necessity of such an institution at the capital of this great 
nation. 

Every institution, to show itself worthy of support, must keep 
in view its relations to the commonwealth. These relations ought 
to be based upon mutual and reciprocal benefits. If an institu- 
tion in a high degree serves the state, the state should, in a 
substantial way, support and cherish the institution. A univer- 
sity should seek, within the range of its proper activities, to ren- 
der services that tend to strengthen and upbuild the state, espe- 
cially by giving to it its richest possession — honorable, high- 
minded, efficient men. 

Every true university stands for that which is fundamental 
and best in civilization — knowledge, character, and the power 
to use knowledge. A state or nation with no system of education 
has failed to take the first step towards the attainment of that 
which is essential to greatness and perpetuity. Thomas Jefferson 
uttered a profound truth when he said, "I look to the diffusion 
of light and education as the resource most to be relied on for 



By transfer 
The White House 
March 3rd, 1913 



a" 

2 

ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing 
the happiness of man. * * * Above all things, I hope the 
education of the common people will be attended to, convinced 
that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for 
the preservation of a due degree of liberty." To Jefferson, virtue, 
liberty, and honorable peace were fundamental and essential to 
the security and happiness of the state. It is education that de- 
velops these virtues and creates these conditions. 

Let us briefly consider the question,. How does education ad- 
vance the public welfare? To answer this question we must 
observe the conditions in the state that are affected and changed 
by education. 

We observe, first, that the existence of a large body of ignorant 
and untrained people within the state makes it possible for the 
unscrupulous, the arrogant, and the rich to use governmental 
power and agencies to secure personal power, private monopolies, 
and subsidies ; to use the public wealth for private gain ; to insti- 
tute systems of spoliation of the public property. This brings 
the nation into disrepute, weakens its power to govern at home, 
and impairs its influence among the nations of the earth. 

To be highly civilized a people must have intellectual power to 
observe and comprehend actual conditions; to understand the 
force and meaning of legislation, of executive policies, and the 
results which follow courses of human conduct. They must have 
the imagination so cultivated that they can create right ideals, 
and their reasoning powers so trained that they can compare the 
actual conditions with the ideal conditions ; and with it all they 
must possess an intelligent and dominant purpose to change the 
conditions that are undesirable to those that are ideal. These 
preeminent qualities — observation, knowledge, reflection, imagi- 
nation, reason, and will — in their highest forms, are the result 
of education. True, there must be the natural gifts and attri- 
butes of the mind to start with, and in exceptional instances 
these may exist in such a high order as to make possible a success 
in life without much systematic education, yet it still remains 
true of the great body of mankind that education, from the 



lowest to the highest forms, is the potential agency which raises 
men to their highest efficiency. 

Education awakens the mind to the light, it enlarges the range 
of mental vision, it quickens and corrects the powers of obser- 
vation, it creates better ideals of conduct and life, it inspires 
noble ambitions and hopes, and impels men — 

"Upward, to move along a Godward way." 

Introduce general education among a people where it has not 
prevailed, and soon the arts and the sciences will rise and abound. 
The yokes which ignorance and superstition place upon the peo- 
ple will be thrown off, and liberty will assert its right to reign. 
The individual will become industrious; then, inventive and 
constructive genius will appear ; the laws and forces of nature 
will be discovered, and heavy burdens will be lifted from men's 
shoulders; as education spreads among a people, the whole giant 
mass will begin to rise to a new and marvelous life. Supersti- 
tions and loose dogmas will fade away as mists before the rising 
sun. Knowledge of nature and her laws, their sure and definite 
workings in the material world, will be discovered; man's spir- 
itual relation to the Eternal Cause of being will appear; then 
men will begin to stand erect and take the place designed for 
them in the Divine economy. Science, jurisprudence, govern- 
ment, national power will prevail, and art and beauty will add 
their glory to the rising civilization. 

Americans boast of freedom, of wealth, and of power. Never 
in the history of the world's progress has God and nature been 
more bountiful to any people. But do we love knowledge, and 
righteousness, and truth, better than these things? True, there 
is a greater proportion of hunger and famine and rags in some 
other lands. But why is it that our people are feeling today the 
great burden of the advance in the cost of living in a country of 
unbounded natural resources? Why are the rich so lavish upon 
the things of the moment, and so unmindful of the institutions 
which endure and work for righteousness? There are strong 
contrasts in human conditions among us caused by the artificial, 
and often purely accidental, possession of gold. Tyranny is not 



extended over our people by a despot, surrounded with hordes of 
non-productive and useless human beings who live upon the 
labor and industry of others, yet the great majority of the things 
we use, that are necessary in our modern life, are burdened with 
special privileges and unnecessary taxation, which work for the 
inordinate enrichment of a few. 

The great corporations which manufacture the foods we eat, 
the materials which enter into the structures we build, and the 
railroads upon which we travel are, many of them, capitalized 
far beyond their actual value in order that unearned and inordi- 
nate gains may be paid to promoters and so-called capitalists. 
These conditions should be studied and wholesome remedies 
suggested by scientific and unprejudiced men. 

Again, legislation is sometimes corrupted at the source, and 
statutes intended for the public weal are weakened or destroyed 
by cunning phrases and "jokers/' purposely intended to make 
the law ineffective and to continue the evil practices which the 
legislation is supposed to correct. Even the judiciary at times 
has supinely followed solemn precedents or technically construed 
a constitution, and upheld or perpetuated practices condemned 
by the common honesty of the people. Men in public places, 
while serving the state or the nation, have not hesitated to take 
"retainers" from rich corporations to serve them "in private 
affairs," but the size of the fee suggests to every honest man 
that the corporation had more in view than simply securing the 
services of a lawyer. 

There is great need for a higher morality in public and busi- 
ness life, and for a broader, and deeper, and more intelligent 
comprehension of our complex business, political, industrial, and 
social life. In the last few years there has been a great advance. 
When time shall have given the people of this nation a fair 
perspective, it will be acknowledged that the administration of 
President Eoosevelt was a period of the greatest moral awaken- 
ing in business and civic affairs that the country has ever ex- 
perienced. At last it has come to be generally acknowledged 
that "railroads" and "public highways" are synonymous terms — 
utilities to be protected and regulated by the state under its 



ministrant functions. All schemes which the machinations of 
highly intelligent capitalists or legal advisers may devise to 
defeat such regulations are, from the political standpoint, funda- 
mentally and morally wrong and should be made statutory 
crimes. Monopolies of the great natural resources of the coun- 
try, which nature has given and which no man has ever created, 
are vicious and public evils. 

We are beginning to understand that society must be regu- 
lated from the standpoint of the state. The development of the 
individual as a strong, efficient unit in society is immensely im- 
portant, but in political science and political economy the in- 
dividual unit must be subordinated to the rights and well-being 
of the whole people, and the relations between individuals must 
be determined ultimately by considering what conduct and what 
rights will insure the greatest good to the greatest number. 

Again, conflicts between unified capital and organized labor call 
for careful study, wise policies, and just legislation. These mighty 
forces in the progress of our modern civilization should become 
united in spirit and effort. There are no reasonable grounds for 
conflict. The greed of one, and unlawful aggression by the 
other, should be restrained until a spirit of common brotherhood 
develops and there is cultivated a better understanding of eco- 
nomic conditions which will show, to both capital and labor, 
that their lawful interests are not antagonistic. Combination of 
capital is, in itself, no less and no more harmful than the com- 
bination of labor. Under selfish and ignorant leadership they 
are equally bad. When either is used for personal and selfish 
ends, organization in itself becomes a menace to the public order 
and the general advancement of society. But when properly 
organized and led by intelligent and patriotic men, capital and 
labor working unitedly will bring in a better day. 

Again, the care of unfortunate and abnormal persons is a sub- 
ject which should receive special and scientific investigation. The 
conduct of the self-supporting towards the non-self-supporting 
is a matter of quite as much importance to the normal as it is 
to the abnormal person. To the dependent it is largely a ques- 
tion of physical care, food, clothing, and shelter; while to the 



6 

normal it is a spiritual matter — a question of character, of the 
dominion of intellectual and altruistic forces. In the life of a 
state the care given to its unfortunate and dependent classes is 
determined by the intelligence and wisdom of the people who 
rule and make up the great body of the state. 

These are all questions too broad and complex for particular 
discussion in this address; they are stated to show some of 
the fields in which the scholar in the university must work, the 
lines along which he must study, and the character of men the 
university should produce in order to serve the state. They 
constitute the background of the picture. 

While the immediate remedy for these and other evils may be 
sought through intelligent, wise, and patriotic legislation, the 
greater hope is in the education of the rising and coming genera- 
tions, giving to them a truer definition and a finer appreciation 
of righteousness. The law will be better fulfilled through knowl- 
edge, kindness, and common good-will than it can be through the 
instrumentality of courts, policemen, and prisons. There is vast 
wealth in this nation, laboriously and sincerely accumulated by 
high-minded, unselfish, and patriotic men ; this should generously 
flow into the great centers of national life and create institutions 
of learning whose sole purpose should be to teach all truth, to 
the glory of God and not to the glory of any man. 

The results to be, obtained from higher education are, we may 
say, to give to students some knowledge, but mainly to give them 
the power of accurate observation, of clear analysis, of properly 
weighing evidence, of reaching correct and wise judgments, creat- 
ing a dominant will to make good conduct prevalent, and with it 
all to enable them to look out upon the world with true affec- 
tion, sympathy, charity, and good-will. In all this there is in- 
volved the training of the moral and intellectual nature, the 
imagination, and the sentiments. 

This training is not attained by reading a single text-book 
upon any given subject, or by studying a single creed, religious 
or political; but by endeavoring to acquire a knowledge of each 
subject from as many points of view as possible, bringing all 
facts and opinions into the class-room for discussion, and reach- 



ing an intelligent generalization ; never accepting, without ques- 
tion, the dogmatic opinion of any historian, economist, law- 
maker, or teacher. University education consists in the acquire- 
ment of facts and truths from all sources, comparing and classify- 
ing them; and this must be the work, not of the teacher, but of 
the student, for by these processes only the student comes to 
intellectual power. 

"His joy is not that he has got his crown, 
But that the power to win the crown is his." 

The prime question in university education today is how to 
produce efficient men — men of sound knowledge, with the art of 
using it effectively for the good of mankind; men of high ideals 
and unimpeachable integrity ; men and women who are true and 
constant in high endeavor, and in whom this exalted motion of 
the soul is not intermittent. 

To produce such men and women for the state, a university 
must have buildings, and libraries, and laboratories, and endow- 
ment, and, above all, great teachers. It requires a costly plant 
to produce fine products. The greatest and noblest work in the 
world is the making of men. In importance to the state no 
other labor, no other investment of money can compare with it. 

Who has not stood before some florist's window, looking at the 
beauty of the flowers? Never have blossoms been brought to 
such perfection. Did you inquire how they came to their present 
^perfection ? It was by no chance or accident. Nor was it wholly 
the work of nature. Nature gave the seed and created the fiber 
out of the earth and air, and painted the leaves and blossoms with 
the glow and colors of the sun; but this does not account for the 
change from the dog-rose to the American Beauty. The human 
mind has been at work. Nature has given up the secrets of her 
kingdom to man and he has used his knowledge and his trained 
hand to aid nature in constructing these matchless flowers. Man 
found the best environment, soil, and climate, and in these placed 
the seed. He discovered the process of conception and birth, and 
budded and united until there grew new varieties and improved 
plants. He tended them at birth and carefully supplied their 
needs. He placed proper nourishment at their roots for them to 



8 

assimilate and out of which to make the best fiber. He arranged 
them in the sunlight to give them warmth and color. He de- 
stroyed their enemies. He cut away all useless growths, reduced 
their stems by pruning until there remained only the number that 
could be brought to the highest perfection and beauty. These 
gifts of thought and labor man bestowed upon them with much 
effort and expense. 

Shall not as much thought, and genius, and effort be bestowed 
upon the rising youth of our land ? A people are fundamentally 
what childhood and youth make them. In the plastic age the 
elements of character may be so changed in their relations that 
the better elements dominate — so mixed that a better and finer 
personality results. The youth of a nation are its citizens "in the 
making." The college takes the youth and gives a new environ- 
ment; it prunes, gives intellectual nourishment, and creates a 
stronger mental and spiritual fiber; its spirit and motion give 
color and tone to character; it straightens the course of conduct 
and gives purpose and direction to life; it gives poise and per- 
sonality to men and women who become ornaments and creators 
of good society. A state cannot much, nor permanently, reform 
its people ; it can restrain evil and compel obedience to law. But 
it can change its citizenship completely by the education that it 
gives to its youth. Here at the root and beginning of life, 
through the influence and power of environment, by spiritual 
enrichment and the processes of refinement, the ruling citizen- 
ship of the Eepublic may reach the ideal. 

"On the mountains of holiness, from the womb of the morn- 
ing, thy youth are to thee as the dew." 

All progress, it has been truly said, is "by all, through all, 
under the leadership of the wisest and best." University educa- 
tion is to prepare men and women to be leaders. We maintain 
military schools to train men for leadership in war, why should 
not the nation prepare leaders for the arts of peace to advance 
national purity and greatness ? 

The Eoman Empire was strongest when higher education be- 
came the policy of the state ; when to cherish and strengthen this 
work of education was felt to be one of the foremost duties of 



rulers. To neglect this education was to cripple the Empire, 
for the power of Some was founded largely on her superior 
civilization. The German Empire has fostered higher education 
as perhaps no other state in the world has done, and even the 
strength of her armies has been attributed to the mental and 
moral culture received by officers and men in the gymnasiums 
and universities of Germany. Strength in physical combat does 
not come to a people by mere physical exercise or the study of 
strategic manceuvers. Real power is in the very tissue and spirit 
of a people's thinking, and feeling, and aspiring. As true suc- 
cess for the individual depends upon his character, so the success 
of a nation must depend upon the composite character of its 
people and the wisdom anil goodness of its leaders. 

The influence of great universities at the centers of popula- 
tion, and especially at the seat of government, are forces the 
importance of which cannot well be overestimated. Take for 
example the University of Berlin, with its five hundred pro- 
fessors and teachers and nearly fourteen thousand students. 
From all parts of the Empire scholars are flocking to Berlin to 
perfect their education in the arts and sciences, and to observe 
and study the science and functions of government, No im- 
portant measure or policy, no official conduct escapes criticism 
and free discussion by that body of virile and independent 
thinkers. They consider and pass judgment upon these matters 
from a free academic position. It is a great dynamic agency 
at the very heart and nerve center of that marvelous Em- 
pire. Its direct influence in producing a strong, honest, and 
patriotic administration of the government is very great, while 
the indirect influence, exerted through its graduates and 
scholars throughout the Empire, is a constant nationalizing 
force. Eudolph Virchow, the great anthropologist and rector 
of the University of Berlin, in 1893, speaking of the rising 
generation, said : "It must be instilled into them that the found- 
ing of the Berlin University was not merely an act of highest 
political wisdom, but also an eminently moral deed. * * * 
Without hesitation we may say its first effect was to stimulate 
most powerfully the sense of nationality. * * * The univer- 



10 

sity showed by precept and example those forces spiritual eleva- 
tion creates for the service of the state." 

Who can state the creative and constructive influence of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge in England, English character and insti- 
tutions have been largely moulded by these great universities. 
In all European states, and in nearly every civilized country in 
the world, universities exist at or near the capital, and their 
beneficial influence is brought to bear directly upon the national 
life. 

In our own country we have striking examples of the creative 
power and influence of great universities upon the States of the 
Union. Take for example one of the younger institutions, the 
University of Wisconsin. Situated at* the capital of that State, 
its faculties are conducting work of a high order in the arts and 
sciences, and at the same time are actively assisting the State 
government in all departments. Members of its faculties collect 
facts, draft bills at the request of committees and members of 
the legislature ; they serve upon commissions under appointment 
by the executive, and the whole range of State policies and 
action upon all matters are freely discussed by its faculties. 
Throughout the State, agricultural and mechanic arts are assisted 
by its scientific men. There is not an industry in the State that 
may not appeal to the University for the solution of practical 
problems. The farmer with unproductive soil, or finding his 
herds, or his forests, or his fruit orchards attacked by insects or 
disease may apply to the University and, without cost to him, 
receive the aid of its scientific men, who endeavor to discover 
the cause of the trouble and to prescribe remedies. This Univer- 
sity is making itself so useful to the people, and its work is so 
much appreciated that the State is now appropriating $100,000 
a month for its maintenance and support, and every industry 
and community in the State is feeling the impulse and uplift 
that comes from this institution with its 4,500 students. 

What marvelous influences have been exerted by Harvard and 
Yale, Columbia and Princeton and the other great institutions 
of learning throughout this land ! Their services to the country 
can no more be measured than can the sunlight, and the air, 









11 

and the rains, and the dew. We know that seed times and har- 
vests are dependent upon these elements of nature, but whose 
hand can put a measuring rod upon these elements and tell us 
their extent and power? And so it is with the spiritual influ- 
ences that flow out from these great centers of learning. They 
hold the richest treasures of the past and give to men a heritage ; 
they throw a flood of light upon the problems of life and make 
a higher civilization. Who shall count their riches or number 
their benefits? How miserably poor a nation would be without 
them! 

In the light of these facts we may well wonder why the Na- 
tional Capital of this great Eepublic is not thoroughly enriched 
by a flourishing university, amply endowed or maintained by the 
generous support of Congress as the Legislature for the District 
of Columbia. Here is a field of educational endeavor unequaled 
in the nation and marvelously rich in its stores of knowledge. 
There is no other educational opportunity in the world like it. 
There is no place where there is greater need for free academic 
discussion of public questions. Nowhere is there a city better 
fitted to be the home of great schools. There is no city that can 
be named that will give a finer body of students. No place in 
the Union would attract a greater number of scholars from the 
whole country and the world, and there is no place that has more 
pressing need for the advantages which higher education gives. 
This field of endeavor should be no longer neglected by Con- 
gress; the practice of economy in supporting education at the 
Capital is a political blunder, amounting almost to a crime. 
The riches of America are not in land, and houses, and gold, but 
in the life-blood, the intellectual strength and moral fiber, of her 
sons and daughters; in the thought, the aspiration, and the 
conduct of the people. The schools and the great institutions 
of learning create these spiritual forces; they give to the body- 
politic the breath of life, an enlightened conscience and immortal 
being. 

Bishop Spalding eloquently said, "A true university will be 
the home both of ancient wisdom and of new learning; it will 
teach the best that is known, and encourage research; it will 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



I 

029 908 614 T 
12 

stimulate thought, refine taste, and awaken the love of excellence ; 
it will be at once a scientific institute, a school of culture, and a 
training-ground for the business of life ; it will educate the minds 
that give direction to the age; it will be a nursery of ideas, a 
center of influence; * * * a place where great minds and 
generous hearts and great souls are gathered to bring their wis- 
dom, their love, and their faith to bear upon the young, to develop 
and raise their whole being toward the ideal of right life, of 
perfect manhood." 

These scholars and teachers are the creators of ideals; they 
work in human materials and make their ideals living realities. 
The nation cannot live its best without the molding, constructive 
work of these men. This beautiful city cannot become truly 
beautiful without them. They constitute a perpetual order, 
laboring, not for wealth, nor as the advocates of special interests, 
but striving for knowledge, and truth, and spiritual power. They 
search for truth with singleness of purpose ; they stand for right- 
eous conduct in public and civic affairs; they seek to make the 
best ideals, the best laws, and the best customs prevalent; they 
speak the truth without fear, and they approve the finest things 
in art and literature. All this they do with an abiding faith in 
men, and with auspicious hope for still higher attainments in 
the intellectual, the social, and the political conditions of man- 
kind. 

"They that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country; 
they desire a better country. * * * Wherefore God is not ashamed 
to be called their God ; for He hath prepared for them a city." 






SD 



LDiiqx 



h/D 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 908 614 8 



Hollinger Corp. 
P H8.5 



